Summer tomato farming

Planted in December, sold April to June. Tk 70,000-80,000 a bigha, 300-400 maunds of fruit, Tk 1,000-1,800 a maund, and Tk 3-4 crore a day changing hands at Gabura Bazar in Dinajpur.

Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
Version 1

Starting capital: ৳35,000 – ৳1,60,000
Manpower: 1 – 6 people
First sale: 90 – 120 days
Break-even: 4 – 5 months
Kind of work: Farm · Medium difficulty

About the business

Growing a winter crop in the heat. Seedlings go in around December, the plants fruit from March, and the tomatoes are in the market from April to June - exactly when the winter crop has finished. The country's summer tomato comes mainly from Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon and Jashore, and the biggest haat is Gabura Bazar in Dinajpur Sadar: more than 400 shops, over three hundred wholesalers arriving daily, 60 to 70 truckloads leaving a day and Tk 3-4 crore changing hands. The market for this crop already exists; you do not have to build it. The money works. Growers put the cost at Tk 70,000-80,000 a bigha for irrigation, fertiliser, drainage and pesticide, against 300 to 400 maunds of fruit, and at an average Tk 1,000 a maund that is Tk 3.5 lakh a bigha. Arafat Hossain of Gabura spent Tk 30,000 on half a bigha and sold Tk 1.5 lakh of tomatoes. Two things to keep in mind. First, planted area in Dinajpur went from 865 hectares to 1,108 in a single year, so supply is rising. Second, the 2026 price was good partly because rain had cut output, and with no cold storage there is no way to hold a perishable crop for a better price.

Unit economics

Item	Range	Evidence
Monthly working capital	৳17,500 – ৳20,000	Editorial estimate
Selling price	৳25 – ৳45 / kg	Market quote
Variable cost	৳4 – ৳7 / kg	Practitioner verified
Gross margin	68% – 90%	Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue	90 – 120 days	Practitioner verified
Break-even time	4 – 5 months	Editorial estimate
Cash cycle	120 – 160 days	Editorial estimate
Waste / loss	10% – 20%	Editorial estimate
Daily capacity	75 – 400	Editorial estimate

What you need to start

An irrigation pump and pipe, drainage channels, and crates holding 26-27 kg each.Equipment
Seedlings, fertiliser and pesticide, all inside the Tk 70,000-80,000 a bigha. No source gives the seedling price separately.Starting stock
Trade licence from the union parishad, municipality or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Carrying your own crop to the haat may not need it; opening an arat or trucking it yourself does.Licence
Keeping tomato plants alive in the heat - the balance of irrigation, shade and drainage. Anyone can grow winter tomato; doing it in summer is the separate skill.Skill
Arotdars and wholesale traders at the haat. Gabura Bazar has more than 400 shops and over three hundred wholesalers arrive daily.Supplier
High land with drainage, measured in bighas (33 decimals). Half a bigha is enough to start: one Gabura grower got 170 maunds off half a bigha.Workspace

How the work is done

1Decide where the crop will be sold before anything else. The real advantage of summer tomato is a ready market: over three hundred wholesalers come to Gabura Bazar in Dinajpur Sadar every day. Check whether your area has a haat like that.
2Plant in December. Fruiting starts three months later in March; plant late and the crop arrives in the peak heat, when the flowers drop.
3Build drainage into the plot. Growers list drainage alongside irrigation and fertiliser in their costs; a summer shower that does not drain away kills the plants.
4Make the irrigation solid. The land dries out in summer, and a week without water ruins the crop.
5Get hold of crates. At Gabura Bazar a crate holds 26-27 kg, and wholesalers buy and sell by the crate.
6Decide whether to sell by the maund or send crates yourself. The market pays Tk 1,000-1,800 a maund by grade, and sending a crate to Dhaka costs Tk 220.
7Grade the fruit. On the same day the rate runs from Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,800 a maund, and the difference is grade alone. Sell unsorted and the whole lot goes at the lower rate.
8Work out the labour in advance. Sorting and packing at the Gabura arats pays Tk 350-400 a day, and in the peak weeks labour is hard to find at all.
9Do not try to hold a perishable crop. The district DAE deputy director says local cold storage would let growers hold the market from July to September, but it does not exist yet.
10Keep track of whether planted area near you is rising. In Dinajpur it went from 865 to 1,108 hectares in one year, and as the area grows the off-season price shrinks with it.

Seasons

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Where it works well

Strong fitDinajpur · Gabura Bazar in the sadar is the country's largest summer tomato haat: 400-plus shops, 60-70 truckloads a day, Tk 3-4 crore of trade. Planted area went from 865 to 1,108 hectares in a year.
Strong fitJashore · The one district outside the north named as a main summer tomato centre, and the vegetable supply hub of the south-west.
Strong fitPanchagarh · Where this crop started; Dinajpur took it up after Panchagarh. Wholesalers still collect from Panchagarh too.
Strong fitThakurgaon · One of the main summer tomato producing centres, and close to Gabura Bazar.
PossibleChandpur · Matlab Dakshin grows early tomato in September and October on the same principle - off-season fruit fetches more. One grower there put Tk 120,000 into 60 decimals against about Tk 7 lakh of tomatoes.
PossibleNilphamari · Inside the Dinajpur-Thakurgaon belt, with the same soil and easy access to Gabura Bazar.
PossibleRajshahi · One of the main tomato districts, but mostly a winter crop; summer planting here could not be verified.
PossibleRangpur · Inside the northern vegetable belt, with both wholesale markets and trucks to Dhaka.

Risks and cautions

HighDemand: The off-season price is the entire business case, and there is no guarantee it holds. Summer tomato in Dinajpur went from 865 hectares in 2024-25 to 1,108 hectares, 243 more in one year. Dinajpur started because Panchagarh did, and now grows more than Panchagarh. If supply keeps climbing like that, the summer price drifts down towards the winter one.
HighSpoilage: Tomato is perishable and there is no way to hold it. The arotdars say so themselves: because it rots they have to sell on a thin margin. The district DAE deputy director says more local cold storage would get growers a better price and let them hold the market from July to September. A Dhaka retailer reckons about one kilo in every 22 kg crate is spoiled.
MediumOther: The weather cuts the yield and lifts the price at the same time, and it cuts both ways. In 2026 rain had reduced output, which is why growers got a good price. The year whose figures you are looking at may be the exception. What the per-maund rate falls to in a good yield year was not found in any source.
MediumDependency: A whole region leaning on one haat. Sixty to seventy truckloads leave Gabura Bazar a day; if the wholesalers stop coming or transport seizes up, the region's crop sits. There is no other summer tomato market this size in the surrounding districts, as a wholesaler of thirty years' standing says himself.
MediumWorking capital: Four months from December to March of money going out and nothing coming in: Tk 70,000-80,000 a bigha, multiplying straight up on a larger plot. On leased land the rent falls in the same months, and that rent is not inside any cost figure on this page.

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